


Labyrinthine Thoughts

by orphan_account



Category: RWBY
Genre: And I mean Holy Fuck, It’s God-Tier Illusion, Ruby’s Semblance isn’t Speed, She’s a Faunus, because I am a fuckin loser like that
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-10
Updated: 2019-01-10
Packaged: 2019-10-07 20:04:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17372411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: O-o-oh, where do we begin?





	1. Trick of the Mind

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> O-o-oh, where do we begin?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ruby is my spiritual daughter and you will not take that from me.

Ruby was born to a Feline Faunus named Summer and a human male named Taiyang, who was her husband.

Well, that’s the story her Mama told her to tell.

 ( ~~She was really born to a Cat Faunus named Summer Rose and a man named Qrow Branwen after a drunken one-night stand. She was Mama’s proudest accident.~~ )

She has a  ~~cousin~~ sister named Yang Xiao Long, who has blonde hair and purple eyes that turn red when she gets mad or hurt. She likes punching people a lot. A **lot.**

(Yang knows their secret, but loves Ruby like a sister anyways. What a good sister-cousin-relative.)

She isn’t as punch-oriented as Yang, though. Her talents lie in what she can make other people do. She can make them see what she wants them to, and can make their other senses fall into the fake world, too!

Her favorite person to prank is Taiyang, her ‘Dad’. He always falls for the hedge mazes she puts in the yard. It’s kinda boring how good he is at getting through them, even though she uses all the hardest puzzles from her coloring books and Yang’s schoolwork.  ~~Papa~~   **Uncle** **Qrow** just turns into a big bird and flies into the house, ‘cause he’s a big stick in the mud.

She doesn’t like tricking Yang, so she never does it unless Yang asks her to let her try and solve a maze.

When Yang gets her to help her fight, she uses her tricks to make the ‘bad guys’ afraid by pulling on the weird strings around their glowy chest-lights.

Those are apparently their souls, and she might’ve given them per-man-net trah-ma... trauma? Tromma? She isn’t the best at spelling- that’s Yang’s special-ty.

———

She learns how to weave mental images- which Taiyang has told her are called ‘hallucinations’ or ‘illusions’- so good that she can trap people deep in them and keep them there as long as she likes, even the big monsters in the woods. The biggest ones can see through them, but the followers always fall for it. 

(She figures out that if she makes the leader look like people, the little ones swarm the leader and kill them. She’s seen everyone she’s ever met get torn apart by the claws and teeth of beasts, but she feels nothing.)

Yang has her constantly cast illusions and hallucinations over or on her so she can learn how to ‘break your spell, sis!’ It makes Ruby feel warm and fuzzy when Yang is smart enough to see through her illusions, and she’s really proud that her sister won’t fall for what everyone else does.

———

Signal is easy for Ruby, who just makes people casually forget she’s there. She does the same for Yang when they share classes, so they end up just fucking around and having a good time together. Their grades never suffer, seeing as they always have the workbooks on their desks and the teacher’s rubric in hand.

Yang seems a little crazy, seeing as she can occasionally be found sitting alone at a lunch table and giggling idly to herself. Said craziness is actually a good way to make friends, and Yang ends up with a sizable base of pals. Ruby is glad, but...

She’s lonely. Her cousin has too many friends to spare time for her. That’s okay, though. She loves Yang, and Yang deserves to be happy, regardless of her feelings.

———

She heads into Vale while Yang goes ‘clubbing’ with her friends. Ruby hopes they don’t accidentally hit each other with their clubs- those things hurt like a bitch. She goes into a small shop called “From Dust ‘til Dawn” and has a nice chat with the Shopkeep, whose Semblance is apparently splitting like a starfish and having a weird semi-hivemind. 

It’s kinda fucking terrifying.

 When she shares that thought with the ‘keep, he just gives a small smile and nods, telling her that he’s certainly scared himself a few times. A bunch of people come into the store with guns and demand money and dust and stuff. She uses her illusions to permanently trap them in a maze made of every maze she knows. 

A few seconds pass- ages in illusion time- and one of the henchmen starts to foam at the mouth.  “Oh dear...” she mumbles, “He musta killed himself in an attempt to escape.” She snaps and he returns to his normal self, reviving him in the illusion and returning his soul to real reality. He throws up on himself and runs off into the night screaming.

Ginger-man blinks and is back in reality. He narrows his eyes suspiciously, looking around and not seeing her since she’s under an illusion. She smacks him in the back of the head with Thorned Moon and he eats shit, Aura not prepared for several pounds of heavy metal to whack him in the other side of his face.

———

Apparently stopping robberies gets you put in an interrogation room with angry blonde ladies who have whips. Her name is apparently Glenda, and she scares Ruby- she can see through Ruby’s illusions and _dispel them._ Ruby wants to go home, but the weird silver haired man keeps mumbling about her silver eyes. She looks to the scary lady, who shrugs and looks like she’s done with everyone’s shit today.

She illusions up a second silver man to get the door opened and spares Miss Glenda the unfortunate fate of listening to the silver-hair man’s soft ramblings, an illusionary Glenda in her place. She also makes an illusion of herself and takes a nap while he’s having a monologue about chess and Salami, or something. She wasn’t playing attention.

~~The mumbling lunatic~~ Headmaster Ozpin offers her an invitation to Beacon, which she happily accepts. She and Yang were gonna make the best team _ever_!

———

Ruby regrets going on this floaty-plane-boat. It’s high off the ground and too loud and she’s getting seasick _without any fucking sea around her_  and it sucks and she has many regrets. Did she take her ADHD meds this morning?

 Yang tells her she didn’t.

(She knew she missed something...)

A blonde guy throws up on Yang’s shoes and Yang punches him in the face.


	2. Beacon in the Dark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Faunus racism- Not cool, bro  
> Schnees getting put in their places- hilarious and wholesome

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey look a plot.

Ruby staggers off the dropship and pukes for several minutes into a trash can while her head clears back up. She solemnly promises herself to _never_ go on one of those unless it’s an emergency again. Yellow guy also pukes for awhile, and an unspoken bond of airsickness is created between the two nauseous Hunter-hopefuls.

His name is apparently Jaune, and they’re fast friends- their personalities click like building blocks. They spend awhile clearing the air with little questions, getting really excited over horror movies they like, and then are interrupted by someone slamming into Ruby’s back, sending briefcases everywhere.

Ruby springs back up to her feet with an indignant yowl and wheels around angrily to look at a man pushing a hotel service cart full of ‘Schnee Industries’-labeled dust containers, her ears flat and pupils slitted in anger. The man apologizes in a defeated voice and begins to gather the fallen products as quickly and safely as he can. She apologizes back and goes after a nearby case to assist him, but before she can grab it a heel slams down on the case.

“Hands off, _cat_ ,” a girl with pale blue eyes and snow white hair sneers, “this is Schnee property and I’m not going to let an animal like you lay your filthy hands on it.” Ruby’s pretty sure she’s never felt this insulted before, especially about being a Faunus- she stands back up and crosses her arms angrily, not noticing a bow-wearing gal who’s about to crack open a can of justice on the snow princess.

“You’re one to talk, Schnee.”

———

Blake always comes to defense of another Faunus, regardless of where or when or why. She strides forwards confidently, steeling herself for the verbal tirade she’s about to unleash. She takes a breath, gathers her thoughts, and begins.

———

Ruby watches in awe as the Faunus lady in disguise utterly _destroys_ Weiss Schnee with words, slapping aside any and all counterarguments with reputably-sourced data, demolishing her family name, reputation, and even her _clothing style_ with all the venom and vigor of a seasoned Hunter talking about the Grimm. It’s literally the most savage verbal beatdown she’s ever been witness to, and she feels blessed to have been a bystander.

The snow queen literally gets so mad she has what looks like a rage aneurysm and storms off. She walks over to her unassuming savior, eyes full of wonder, and thanks her for all she’s worth.

———

Blake is a little red in the face after the sincere thanks the  ~~adorable kitten~~ younger Faunus offers her. She smoothly declines an invitation to join her on her tour of Beacon, walks off, and has to take a minute to stop thinking about those giant, adorable silver eyes and that tiny little sm-

“Do... do I have a crush?”

———

Ruby goes and sits down inside to inspect her weapons.

Crescent Rose and Thorned Moon, alternately refitting into Crescent Moon and Thorned Rose, are both in good shape- she gave both her babies a nice cleaning before they came to Vale again.

Crescent Rose used to be a long barreled sniper-scythe, but it received a few major changes as she started to practice CQC more with Yang.

The combo of sniper rifle and scythe became combat rifle with affixable bayonet. Ammo went from thick squares clips of varying rounds to drum mags of explosive shells, and a 4x sight went to ACOG. Her practice with hipfiring was just as applicable to the much lighter Crescent as it was to the old model. 

Thorned Moon is unlike any of the weapons she’d ever used or created. Then again, it was made based on a night she spent watching through the windows of Patch’s small red light district and playing Castlevania Mobile on her scroll.

To cut her own bullshit, it’s a whip. It’s a serrated razor whip with a rose motif. It has thorns. It’s literally a sadomasochistic trip dream.

She uses it to cut fruit at twenty paces and butcher Grimm at thirty. The original Crescent Rose’s blades were broken down to make Rose Lashes, which are her nickname for the little thorn-spikes across the whip. 

Thorned Rose is a serrated shortsword made of bayonet and whip bits, her emblem made with the Rose Lashes in its center.

Crescent Moon is a hand cannon that’s made by taking off the front of Crescent Rose.

It’s the revolver from hell that shoots supernova (gravity dust+ fire dust) rounds and has enough knockback to put you on your ass if you’re not braced to fire properly. 

That extra part of Crescent Rose splits in two and is used as kneepads.

(Uncle Qrow nearly went insane trying to reverse-engineer the damn things- he doesn’t understand _h o w_ she pulled that off. He quit drinking for nearly two months as he tried to reproduce the product of sleep deprivation and lost innocence.)

———

Satisfied with the state of her gear, she wanders around the halls of her new home (supposedly for the next four years), noting the best nap spots, hiding places, areas to stash her favorite things, and air vent accesses. She scopes out the rooms, leaves little marks on the walls to claim them as hers, and makes a general mess of things.

It probably gives Faunus a bad name, but she doesn’t really want (or need) to care.

She spends that night smushed into her sister’s chest, since Yang is a cuddlebug while she is sleepy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Plot tastes like black licorice. Ew.


End file.
